When I talk to customers about Active Directory (AD), I often describe Active Directory as their organization’s “hall closet.” You know — that closet in house that holds all of your household clutter? Every time you open the door, you hold your breath and hope that everything doesn’t spill out.

Keeping it Together

Why would I describe AD that way? Well, since it was introduced 15 years ago as the predecessor to Windows NT, many things have been added. Naturally, we added a lot of email and SharePoint. We stood up a few more forests to handle additional functionality and maybe added a domain as we went through a merger and acquisition. And now we’re looking to support BYOD and the cloud.

Clearly, it’s been a game of shuffling, stacking, restacking, reshuffling and balancing. And AD, which was initially created to authenticate file and printer servers is now the authentication center for 90% of organizations. How do IT managers do it?

So why don’t we discuss AD problems more openly? Well, it if ain’t broke, don’t fix it…right? Most organizations are so busy investigating new technology to keep up with recent trends, they don’t have the bandwidth or resources to analyze or assess their current AD structure.

And, as organizations gear up for Office 365/Azure AD to take some pressure off of their IT infrastructures, they’re learning that AD needs a good cleaning — just like the hall closet.

To learn more about successfully modernizing your AD environment to meet current and future organizational needs, find out how we can help.